IGF 2025 Open Forum #57 Open Source FemTech for Gender Equality and Inclusion

Technology is advancing rapidly, but at a pace that risks widening gaps between those who benefit and those who don’t. Where solutions are available, they are often inaccessible either by design or intent. The needs of diverse groups of people are not considered, and licensing and business models exclude a vast network of innovators that can adapt them to benefit disadvantaged and marginalised groups. This adds to  the great divide between the need to improve the health and wellness, as well as empowerment, inclusion and other outcomes for women and girls, and systemic barriers that prevent accelerating local FemTech innovation. 31% of women worldwide are not in education, employment, or training;  740 million in developing economies remain unbanked; and over 21 million adolescent girls in LMI countries become pregnant each year.  All the while, 75% of fem tech companies are currently based in the US or Europe; in 2023 women-founded startups accounted for 2% or less of VC funding; the funding for innovation for emerging markets has plummeted by over 40% since 2023; and existing solutions are often inaccessible to those most in need due to traditional licensing and business models. This session will explore how building open source FemTech products, including FemTech Digital Public Goods, can provide a service layer to national and regional Digital Public Infrastructure that improves outcomes for women and girls.

From the first minutes of the session the online moderator will act as a coordinator between the participants on site and the audience online. The entire session will be intersected with 30-sec long “activity moments” where the audience both online and in the room will have an opportunity to react to questions through a platform menti.com (or similar). The answers to these questions will contribute to and inform the flow of the discussion. The questions and moments will be scripted and rehearsed prior to the session. The questions will pull from different contexts, including from the statistics provided in the description of the session, e.g. “What percentage of global VC investment goes to companies founded solely by women?"